Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to review his conviction on bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud charges, arguing that the "novel" theories behind his prosecution "stretch federal bribery law in ways that threaten to criminalize and chill lawful interactions between state and local officials and their constituents."
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TOP NEWS

Madigan Asks Supreme Court To Review His Bribery Verdict

By Celeste Bott

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to review his conviction on bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud charges, arguing that the "novel" theories behind his prosecution "stretch federal bribery law in ways that threaten to criminalize and chill lawful interactions between state and local officials and their constituents."

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Film Producer Charged In $100M Alleged Ponzi Scheme

By Celeste Bott

A film producer has been charged with seven counts of wire fraud in Illinois federal court, with prosecutors claiming in an indictment unsealed Tuesday that he bilked more than $100 million from investors in a Ponzi scheme.

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Attys Secure $15M Fees In Abbott Formula Shareholder Suit

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge on Wednesday approved class counsel's $15.3 million fee request in a shareholder dispute over Abbott Laboratories' management of a 2022 infant formula contamination crisis, satisfied with the elaboration he called for during an earlier settlement fairness hearing.

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LITIGATION

Analysis

Securities Class Actions To Watch: Mid-Year Report

By Jessica Corso

A trio of circuit court appeals tied to the class certification process in shareholder suits and a U.S. Supreme Court appeal that also touches on certification are among the cases that securities litigators are keeping an eye on in the second half of 2026.

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Nexstar Says Tegna Board Members Don't Violate Injunction

By Matthew Perlman

Nexstar Media Group told a California federal court that Tegna remains independent, despite concerns from DirecTV and a coalition of states that the companies violated an injunction preventing them from merging fully when Nexstar took over Tegna's board.

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3M, DuPont Ordered To Face Montana PFAS Lawsuit, For Now

By Aaron Keller

DuPont de Nemours Inc., 3M Co. and other manufacturers of firefighter turnout gear must for now face a retooled class action complaint by local governments in a dozen states who claim an industrywide conspiracy concealed the dangers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a Montana federal judge ruled Tuesday.

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SEVENTH CIRCUIT

7th Circ. Flips Order Keeping 5 Baby Formula Suits In Ill. MDL

By Lauraann Wood

The Seventh Circuit has reversed a district court's finding that five out-of-state necrotizing enterocolitis suits should stay in Illinois-based multidistrict litigation involving similar cases over allegedly harmful formula for preterm infants, saying the lower court went "far afield" in its fraudulent joinder analysis.

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DEALS

4 Firms Steer Grant Thornton's $5B Agreement To Buy CBIZ

By Al Barbarino

New Mountain Capital-backed Grant Thornton Advisors said Wednesday it has agreed to acquire CBIZ Inc. in a deal worth $5 billion, including debt, that would create a top-five U.S. provider of professional, tax and advisory services. 

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Advocacy Group Says Law Firm Fellowship Program Biased

By Patrick Hoff

A legal advocacy group said Thursday it had lodged U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charges against a nonprofit and law firms including Jones Day, White & Case and Morgan Lewis, claiming Muslim and Middle Eastern students were getting unlawful preference in a fellowship program.

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ABA Eyes Nixing School DEI Standards To Sway Trump Admin

By Emma Cueto

The American Bar Association is poised next week to eliminate the first of multiple diversity-related law school standards, a controversial move that it hopes will allow it to remain an accreditor despite an uncertain outcome in the face of a Trump administration increasingly wary of the association's role in legal education.

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WilmerHale Sued Over Accidental Client Data Disclosure

By Andrea Keckley

A proposed federal class action filed Wednesday accuses WilmerHale of failing to protect clients' personal information after an employee allegedly disclosed sensitive data, including Social Security numbers, to an unauthorized person who misrepresented their identity back in May.

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2 Traders Admit Guilt In Stolen BigLaw Info Scheme

By Chris Villani

Two men pled guilty Thursday in Massachusetts federal court to their roles in a sweeping scheme to trade on inside information stolen from huge corporate law firms about upcoming deals.

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Ill. Atty Sanctioned For AI Slop In Starbucks Bias Suit

By Adrian Cruz

A unanimous Illinois appeals court sanctioned an attorney representing a former Starbucks employee in a workplace discrimination suit after determining that he submitted briefs using false citations and quotations hallucinated by artificial intelligence software.

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Trump May Renominate Blanche If GOP Holdouts Block Vote

By Courtney Bublé

With Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., still on the fence about acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's confirmation to be attorney general, President Donald Trump said Thursday he might renominate Blanche next year when the two senators are no longer serving in the Senate.

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DA Says Trump's NY Hush Money Conviction Must Stand

By Frank G. Runyeon

New York prosecutors told a state appellate court that President Donald Trump's 34-count felony conviction for falsifying business records is "unaffected" by the U.S. Supreme Court's watershed presidential immunity decision and should be upheld.

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Judiciary's Bid To Control Courthouses Gets Senate Push

By Courtney Bublé

A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill on Thursday that would create a pilot program for the federal judiciary to obtain direct authority to maintain its buildings, which the judiciary says is desperately needed.

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Bronx Legal Aid Organization's Union Rejects New Pay Offer

By Andrea Keckley

The Bronx Defenders' executive director said on Thursday that the union representing the organization's over 300 attorneys and staff has rejected an updated offer on wages, with both sides still at odds over the prospect of separate salary scales for lawyers and social workers.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Akerman LLP

Alston & Bird

Bliven Law Firm

Breen & Pugh

Browning Kaleczyc

Butler Snow LLP

Cole Sadkin

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

Cravath Swaine

Crowley Fleck

Davis Hatley

Debevoise & Plimpton

Dechert LLP

Fine Kaplan

Foley Hoag

Fox Rothschild

Freeman Mathis

Garlington Lohn

Gibson Dunn

Goldberg Segalla

Goodwin Procter

Grant & Eisenhofer

Hagens Berman

Hall & Evans

Heenan & Cook

Holland & Hart

Hunton Andrews

Jones Day

Jones Walker LLP

Keller Postman

King & Spalding

Labaton Keller

Laird Cowley

Latham & Watkins

Lewis Brisbois

Mayer Brown

Milberg PLLC

Morgan Lewis

Morrison & Foerster

Munger Tolles

Orrick Herrington

Patterson Belknap

Proskauer Rose

Quinn Emanuel

Robinson Bradshaw

Sheppard Mullin

Shook Hardy

Sidley Austin

Silver Golub

Simonsen Sussman

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

Sullivan & Cromwell

Troutman

Wachtell Lipton

Weil Gotshal

White & Case

Wilkinson Stekloff

Williams & Connolly

WilmerHale

Winston Taylor

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

3M Co.

Abbott Laboratories

Amalgamated Bank

American Bar Association

Bread Financial Holdings Inc.

Brooklyn Defender Services

CBIZ Inc.

Citrix Systems Inc.

Comcast Corp.

Commonwealth Edison Co.

Corteva Inc.

DuPont de Nemours Inc.

Enstar Group Ltd.

Exelon Corp.

FirstEnergy Corp.

Grant Thornton LLP

Johnson & Johnson

Meta Platforms Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc.

NVIDIA Corp.

New Mountain Capital LLC

New York University

Nexstar Media Group Inc.

Old Navy LLC

Poshmark Inc.

Sponsors for Educational Opportunity Inc.

Stanford University

Starbucks Corp.

Tegna Inc.

The Boeing Co.

The Bronx Defenders

The DIRECTV Group Inc.

The Gap Inc.

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

United Auto Workers

W. L. Gore & Associates Inc.

YouTube Inc.

Zillow Group Inc.

ZoomInfo Technologies Inc.

iRobot Corporation

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Arkansas Teacher Retirement System

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Trade Commission

Food and Drug Administration

Illinois Attorney General's Office

Illinois Supreme Court

Internal Revenue Service

Judicial Conference of the United States

Manhattan District Attorney's Office

New York Supreme Court, New York County

Texas Supreme Court

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. General Services Administration

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Montana